7–18 October
National Theatre Brno Magazine
5th International Theatre and Music Festival
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
5th International Theatre and Music Festival
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
“A work of art – be it as a whole – or perhaps one act of it – or even a fleeting moment of it should grip and enthral us.” Leoš Janáček
Honorary committee Mikuláš Bek – Rector of Masaryk University Jiří Bělohlávek – Conductor Petr Dvořák – Director General of Czech Television Astrid Koblanck – Director of Universal Edition Wien Ivo Medek – Rector of the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts Nicholas Payne – Director of Opera Europa David Pountney – Stage Director John Tyrrell – Musicologist
Patrons
Programme board
Miloš Zeman – President of the Czech Republic Daniel Herman – Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic Petr Vokřál – Mayor of the City of Brno Michal Hašek – Regional Governor of South Moravia Arndt Freiherr Freytag von Loringhoven – German Ambassador Alexander Grubmayr – Austrian Ambassador
Patricie Částková – Dramaturge of the Janáček Opera NTB Eva Drlíková – Director of the Leoš Janáček Foundation Martin Glaser – Director of the National Theatre Brno Josef Herman – Editor-in-Chief of Divadelní noviny Jiří Heřman – Artistic Director of the Janáček Opera NTB Marko Ivanović – Chief Conductor of the Janáček Opera NTB Miloš Štědroň – Musicologist
A notebook full of musical exclamations – and who knows what plot they will end up in! Leoš Janáček
Janáček Brno is entering its fifth year. That means that it is still a very young festival, although it has already put itself firmly on the map – not only in Brno, but also in an international context. This fifth year is a commitment to the future as well as something of a crossroads at which the festival stands. And that is what led us to this year’s festival motto of “Expectation”. Janáček himself spent a large part of his artistic career waiting for success and recognition, which he finally achieved towards the end of his life. The period in which he lived, the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, was itself a time of great change, which raised great expectations about what the coming years would bring. The map of Europe changed, there were huge leaps in technology and we were flying towards the heavens. The art world was electrified by an unprecedented number of trends and schools. It was the start of an era which continues to this day. We are still nervously waiting to see how our civilization will develop.
National Theatre Brno Magazine Published by: National Theatre Brno, a state-funded organization whose founder is the City of Brno. MK ČR E11077 ISSN 1803-0408 Chief Editor: Patricie Částková Editor: Pavel Lojda Editor: Jitka Šotkovská Translation: Graeme and Suzanne Dibble Graphic design: Robert V. Novák and Zuzana Burgrová Printer: Mafraprint
Commercial information National Theatre Brno, state-funded organization, Dvořákova 11, 657 70 Brno Information about performances, reservations and payment obchod@ndbrno.cz / +420 542 158 120 Online sales: http://online.ndbrno.cz Payment in cash and by credit card NTB Advance Ticket Sales, Dvořákova 11, +420 542 158 120 Mon – Fri 8.30 am – 6 pm Dům pánů z Lipé Information Centre, +420 539 000 770 Mon – Fri 8 am – 8 pm / Sat – Sun 9 am – 4 pm 45 minutes before the performance at the theatre box office
Customer Centre Jan Bernášek, manager / bernasek@ndb.cz Zuzana Ivanová, advance sales / ivanova@ndbrno.cz It can be found in the theatres and at the NTB Advance Sales office.
The Ministry of Cultural financially supports the National Theatre Brno, a state-funded organization.
Jiří Heřman Artistic Director of the Janáček Opera NTB Patricie Částková Dramaturge of the Janáček Opera NTB
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The City of Brno financially supports the National Theatre Brno, a state-funded organization.
Just as it did one hundred years ago, Janáček’s unique music touches upon the crucial moments in people’s lives in a profound way, and the main goal of our festival is not just to present outstanding performances of his music, but also to provide different interpretive views reflecting events in contemporary European society. Robert Carsen said that Janáček was an artistic school all to himself, but his work and artistic outlook have influenced and inspired further generations of artists – and not only in classical music – whose work also deserves a place at the festival, because this juxtaposition is an important part of searching for the answers to questions about the direction the world around us is heading in. Perhaps we are not always aware of it, but expectation is part of us from the moment we are born. It accompanies us in our intimate moments and at times when the course of history changes. It is the wellspring of our hopes and our nightmares... And nowhere is expectation more powerful than in art. That brief moment before the curtain rises...before the bow touches the strings...
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Janáček Brno 2016 programme Leoš Janáček Káťa Kabanová Janáček Opera NTB Káťa is like life Robert Carsen about Káťa Kabanová The Diary of One Who Disappeared Ian Bostridge, Julies Drake, Václava Krejčí Housková The Diary of One Who Disappeared Song cycles are actually already operas Janáček’s choruses Four Faces of Choral Song Lukáš Vasilek / Petr Fiala / Michal Vajda / Josef Pančík Leoš Janáček From the House of Dead Nuremberg State Theatre Viktor Ullmann The Fall of the Antichrist Moravian Theatre Olomouc Festival for Children Maurice Ravel The Child and the Spells South Bohemian Theatre Leoš Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen animated version, BBC and Czech TV Béla Bartók Bluebeard’s Castle Janáček Opera NTB in collaboration with Opera Göteborg Janáček Goes to Jazz… Janáček Has a Gift for Tapping Into Deep Emotions Recital by Martina Janková and Ivo Kahánek Speech Melodies Are Windows Into People’s Souls... Beryl Korot and Steve Reich on the opera The Cave I Take Inspiration From Folk Music interview with the singer, composer and lyricist Marta Töpferová Janáček versus Bartók interview with the conductor Tomáš Brauner A Glorious 100 Years concert – Miloslav Ištvan Quartett Arnold Schönberg Expectation Janáček Opera NTB in collaboration with Opera Göteborg Janáček Brno 2016 Information Venues, Advance Sales, Festival Pass Leoš Janáček Jenůfa Janáček Opera NTB
2–3
5 th International Theatre and Music Festival
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
programme
Béla Bartók
16. 10.
Arnold Schönberg
Expectation Director: David Radok / Conductor: Marko Ivanović Janáček Opera NTB in collaboration with Opera Göteborg 6.30 pm introductory talk 7 pm / Janáček Theatre Festival Echoes with further dates on 23. 10. and 30. 10. from 5pm.
Opera productions Leoš Janáček
7. 10.
Viktor Ullmann Gala festival opening
17. 10.
Káťa Kabanová / premiere
Leoš Janáček
Steve Reich (music), Beryl Korot (video)
11. 10.
Leoš Janáček
18. 10.
Káťa Kabanová Director: Robert Carsen / Conductor: Ondrej Olos Janáček Opera NTB 2.30 pm introductory talk 3 pm / Janáček Theatre
The Cave / premiere Conductor: Pavel Šnajdr Brno Contemporary Orchestra 6.30 pm introductory talk 7 pm / Mahen Theatre
The Fall of the Antichrist Director: Jan Antonín Pitínský / Conductor: Miloslav Oswald Moravian Theatre Olomouc 7 pm / Mahenovo divadlo
Director: Robert Carsen / Conductor: Ondrej Olos Janáček Opera NTB 7 pm / Janáček Theatre
9. 10.
Bluebeard’s Castle
Festival Closing Concert
Jenůfa Director: Martin Glaser / Conductor: Marko Ivanović Janáček Opera NTB 7 pm / Janáček Theatre
Choral concerts 8. 10.
Chorus of the Prague Philharmonic L. Janáček – Hradčany Songs, Halfar the Schoolmaster, The Wandering Madman, B. Martinů – Romance of the Dandelions, Mikeš of the Mountains Chorus master: Lukáš Vasilek 3 pm / Reduta Theatre (Mozart Hall)
Leoš Janáček
12. 10.
From the House of the Dead
10. 10.
Director: Calixto Bieito / Conductor: Marcus Bosch Nuremberg State Theatre 6.30 pm introductory talk 7 pm / Janáček Theatre Unsuitable for people under 18
L. Janáček – Maryčka Magdonova, 70 000, Veni sancte Spiritus V. Novák – Two Ballads on Moravian Folk Poetry, B. Martinů – Hymn to St James, Czech Madrigals (selection), P. Řezníček – Dies irae; P. Fiala – Regina coeli laetare, Chorus master: Petr Fiala 7 pm / Beseda House
Edvard Grieg
13. 10.
Chorus of the Czech Philharmonic Brno
The Mountain Maid (Haugtussa) / premiere Leoš Janáček
Schoenberg Chor The Diary of One Who Disappeared 13. 10. Arnold L. Janáček – Autumn Song; B. Bartók – 4 Slovak Folk Songs, Director: Rocc Opera Povera in collaboration with Opera Bergen 4 pm / Theatre on Orlí
A. Schönberg – De Profundis, Friede auf Erden, 3 Volksliedsätze, A. Dvořák (arranged by L. Janáček) – 6 Moravian Duets, J. Suk – Three Songs Chorus master: Erwin Ortner 7.30 pm / Reduta Theatre (Mozart Hall)
Edvard Grieg
14. 10.
The Mountain Maid (Haugtussa) Leoš Janáček
15. 10.
L. Janáček – In nomine Jesu, Exaudi deus, Hail Mary, Mass in E Flat, Our Father; P. Eben – Prague Te Deum 1989, L. Janáček – Varyto, Adagio I, Adagio II, P. Eben – Versetti Chorus master: Michal Vajda 4 pm / Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Jezuitská street)
The Diary of One Who Disappeared Opera Povera in collaboration with Opera Bergen 7 pm / Theatre on Orlí Béla Bartók
15. 10.
Bluebeard’s Castle / premiere Arnold Schönberg
Expectation / premiere Director: David Radok / Conductor: Marko Ivanović Janáček Opera NTB in collaboration with Opera Göteborg 7 pm / Janáček Theatre
Masaryk University Choir
16. 10.
Chorus of the Janáček Opera NTB L. Janáček – The Warning, Our Birch Tree, True Love, The Evening Witch, The Wild Duck, Hukvaldy Songs, Ah, The War P. Křižkovský – Headscarf, Renegade of the Heart, The Drowned Woman, Lines J. Suk – 10 songs for female choir with piano for four hands Chorus master Josef Pančík, Pavel Koňárek 4 pm / Janáček Theatre (foyer)
Concerts, recitals, chamber series 8. 10.
Jazz Goes to Janáček 13. 10.
E. Viklický – Adventure in Black and Yellow, Mor. folk, arr. E. Viklický – Hey, Love, Love, Mor. folk, arr. E.Viklický – Aspen Leaf (Na Osice), L. Janáček, arr. E. Viklický – Sinfonietta, clarinet theme from the 5th part, L. Janáček, arr. E. Viklický – Thank you, Laca, aria from the opera Jenůfa; Mor. folk, arr. E. Viklický – Wine, Wine
Piano matinée with the JAMU Music Faculty L. Janáčekk – Concertino, On the Overgrown Path (1st series), S. Barber – Sonáta Concert by students from JAMU MF Piano Department 11 am / JAMU Music Faculty Hall
8. 10.
9. 10.
Iva Bittová: vocals, violin OK Percussion Duo: percussion
The Diary of One Who Disappeared Tenor: Ian Bostridge / Piano: Julius Drake A. Dvořák – Gypsy Melodies (selection), L. Janáček – Moravian Folk Poetry in Song (selection), On the Overgrown Path (selection), The Diary of One Who Disappeared Also featuring Václava Krejčí Housková and members of the Janáček Opera Chorus NTB 7 pm / Beseda House
L. Janáček – I Wait For You, In memoriam, Speech melodies and songs (selection), The Diary of One Who Disappeared (13th part), Saws, The Danube (vocalization, 3rd movement) 7 pm / Mahen Theatre
15. 10.
Didrik Ingvaldsen Orchestra Sinfonietta (jazz arrangement) 8 pm / Reduta Theatre
16. 10.
L. Janáček – Hey, What Nightingale is this One?, I Won’t Die on the Ground, For You, Anička, There Was a Forlorn Widow, In the Mountains, In the Valleys, Little Red Apples, The Mosquitoes‘ Wedding, B. Martinů – The Foresaken Lover, L. Janáček – On the Overgrown Path (selection), Desire, Flowers of Love, The Little Bench, Milokraj – Swallow, Where are you Flying to?, Apple of Forgetting, Greeting, Blue Night, Water Song
The Fiddler’s Child Béla Bartók
Piano concerto No. 2, Music for strings, percussion and celeste
Milokraj
Conductor: Tomáš Brauner / Piano: Ivo Kahánek PKF – Prague Philharmonic 7.30 pm / Beseda House
10. 10.
Recital by Martina Janková and Ivo Kahánek L. Janáček – Moravian folk poetry – selection Soprano: Martina Janková Baritone: Roman Hoza / Piano: Ivo Kahánek 8 pm / Villa Tugendhat
14. 10.
15. 10.
Vocals: Marta Töpferová, Piano: Jan Bartoš 8 pm / Reduta Theatre (Mozart Hall)
Festival for Children Leoš Janáček
9. 10.
The Cunning Little Vixen Animated version, BBC and Czech TV 3 pm / Reduta Theatre
Ivo Kahánek Piano composition by Leoš Janáček and Béla Bartók L. Janáček – In the Mists, Sonata 1. X. 1905, On the Overgrown Path (2nd series); B. Bartók – 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs Piano: Ivo Kahánek 8 pm / Villa Tugendhat
Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs and Folk Ballads
Leoš Janáček
9. 10.
Polajka / Nikolaj Nikitin Ensemble Tales from my diary featuring Miroslav Vitouš
In the footsteps of Janáček and his predecessors L. Janáček – Capriccio, selected opera scenes and a selection of organ works by L. Janáček; M. Gajdoš – Engraving, N. Rota – Parla piú piano; E. Zámečník – Small Suite for Four Double Basses Concert by students of the MF JAMU 11 am / MF JAMU
Emil Viklický trio
Maurice Ravel
14. 10.
The Child and the Spells Director: SKUTR / Conductor: Mario De Rose South Bohemian Theatre 6 pm / Mahen Theatre
Parnas Quintet L. Janáček – Youth; P. Haas – Wind Quintet; G. Ligeti – Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet; M. Arnold – Three Shanties 10 am / Leoš Janáček Memorial
16. 10.
Parnas Quintet 10 am / Leoš Janáček Memorial
17. 10.
Miloslav Ištvan Quartett L. Janáček – 1st String Quartet “Kreutzer Sonata“, J. Kvapil – 5th String Quartet, M. Ištvan – 2nd String Quartet, F. Emmert – 5th String Quartet 7 pm / Museum of Applied Arts
Festival programme subject to change.
4–5
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7 and 9 Oct 2016, Janáček Theatre
Káťa Kabanová Leoš Janáček
Director: Robert Carsen Conductor: Ondrej Olos Janáček Opera NTB Káťa: Pavla Vykopalová Boris: Magnus Vigilius Kabanicha: Eva Urbanová Dikoj: Jiří Sulženko
text: Patricie Částková photo: Javier del Real, Teatro Real
Opera Vlaanderen, Antverpy / Gent – principal owner of license
Káťa Kabanová was originally produced for the Vlaamse Opera, but it quickly found its way onto the stage of Madrid’s Teatro Real and Milan’s La Scala. And it is no wonder, with the artistically pure and simple stage design, where the most important part is the stage completely covered with water to evoke the River Volga, and Káťa’s emotions, combining with the detailed characterization and Carsen’s distinctive poetics to form an impressive adaptation of one of Janáček’s most beauti l operas. e NTB Janáček Opera will be the first opera ensemble in the Czech Republic to have a production by this outstanding director as part of its repertoire.
The Bulletin
The stage is empty, except occasionally for a few chairs. What the Canadian director has chosen to emphasise almost obsessionally is the central symbolism of the Volga: water is omnipresent and the characters are constantly treading precarious wooden walkways, as if they were in Venice at the time of acqua alta. This makes for fascinating visual effects, with the ever-changing reflections of shimmering water on the backdrop. The lighting is fantastic, creating for example an eerie atmosphere in the storm scene at the beginning of Act III. Marcel Croës
Financial Times
After his superbly imaginative Puccini cycle for Flanders, stripping the operas quizzically down to their spirituals bones, the Canadian director Robert Carsen now finds himself under way with a Janáček cycle in quite another style. It began two or three years ago with a beautiful Jenůfa with probably its most radiant ever final scene, and continued with bright Cunning Little Vixen; now we have this extraordinary Káťa. It is genuinely and even hauntingly spectacular in wholly sympathetic way. David Murray
6–7
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Káťa is life Robert Carsen is one of the foremost
Patricie Částková
photo: Felipe Sanguinetti
text:
opera directors, and his productions are regularly staged in theatres such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and La Scala. His work is o en described as Regietheater because he usually sets his operas in a different time and place from the original score. Nevertheless, his productions are remarkable for their distinctive poetic and dramaturgical tightness, and most importantly they are emotional, exhilarating and strikingly impressive works of theatre.
Robert Carsen
Robert Carsen was born in Toronto, Canada, and experienced opera very early on in life. “I was taken to the opera when I was seven. At first I used to go so that I could stay up late – I figured out that it was a good way to not have to go to bed early. But I remember almost everything I saw when I was little, all the operas at the COC, all the theatre.” He was attracted to the theatre and wanted to be an actor. He began studying theatre studies at York University, but when he was 20 he decided to move to Britain to study acting. That eventually led him to directing because, as he himself remembers, after studying for two years at Bristol’s Old Vic his teacher told him that he had a talent for directing. “At first I thought he was trying to tell me I was a terrible actor, but in fact he was saying, ‘I think you’re actually a director — how your mind works, and the way you contribute to what everyone else is doing.’ That got me thinking.” His career as a director began as an unpaid assistant at a festival in Spolet in Italy and in London’s Covent Garden. This led to an engagement at the Glyndebourne Festival, where he worked with many of the leading British and American directors. His first project as a director was The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies and The Prodigal Son by Benjamin Britten at the Guelph Spring Festival in Ontario. Today he has countless outstanding productions to his credit and is one of the busiest opera directors in the world.
“I’m passionate about music, and I care deeply about the score in doing an opera – otherwise there’s no point for me in directing opera. The music completely shapes how the piece is told. The way you feel the work emotionally is conveyed by the music.”
5 th International Theatre and Music Festival
photo: Bettina Stoess
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
Carsen has worked on Janáček’s operas as a director on more than one occasion, and has to his credit award-winning productions of Jenůfa, From the House of the Dead, Káťa Kabanová, The Makropulos Affair and The Cunning Little Vixen. Brno audiences had the opportunity to see his production of The Makropulos Affair performed by the Nuremberg Opera at the 2010 Janáček Brno festival. Robert Carsen’s first encounter with Janáček’s music was completely accidental, as he recalled at the festival conference in 2014: “When I came to England as an actor, I wanted to see what Covent Garden looked like. I travelled from Bristol to London and they were performing a curious thing I had never heard of called Jenůfa. I was determined to see what the theatre looked like inside and so I bought a ticket and went to the performance, and I was just bowled over by what I saw and heard. When I was working with Malcolm, we discussed what we could do for the next cycle and it seemed to me essential to stage Janáček, because he is my favourite composer for the theatre. Janáček is a school of music all by himself. You can’t compare him with anyone and he didn’t follow on from something in the way you might imagine with Puccini following on from Verdi and so on. There isn’t anything here you can compare him with. What is unique to all of his works is his extraordinary ability, and ultimately opera is always a kind of alchemy, with the intellectuality of the word being tempered by the emotion of the music, and Janáček had a really unique approach. Janáček would often adapt the libretto himself and make radical changes. That’s another thing which is amazing about his works. His operas are relatively short, even the three-act ones, and unbelievably powerful. It isn’t so important to him whether it’s always clearly understandable. For example, in Makropulos it was as if the first act wasn’t even intended to be clearly understandable, because you can’t replicate the entire legal process, nor is that what he wants us to do. The world which he created is amazing. Thanks to his skill as a composer, he can immediately take the audience into the world he wants to go into. There is no gentle introduction – the doors just open and you’re there. And that’s always totally riveting. For me there is an almost miraculous equilibrium between the theatre and the music. It’s a different energy and a different case for each work, at least for the works which I’ve had the chance to work on, but there’s always this amazing, uncompromising, unpolished approach to composition. It’s a very powerful emotional and intellectual reaction to a situation, and it’s the reason why I like him so much.”
photo: Alain Kaiser
Jenůfa – State Theatre Essen
“We did Káťa along with two other Janáček productions with the Vlaamse Opera and Patrick Kinmonth. Káťa is quite different from the other two. In its own way it’s more romantic and it looks more at the characters’ subconscious. We wanted to create a symbolic link to the water and a connection to it, to create a production which reflects this symbolism. But at the same time we never wanted to pause between the scenes because they are very short and it’s more an admission of defeat when you pause or even lower the curtain and change the scenery during those wonderful orchestral interludes. It’s as though the scenes were supposed to be cinematic – sometimes there’s a cut, sometimes a fade-out... There are parts where you follow the character from one scene to another, such as Káťa’s arrival in the garden. That’s why we wanted a production that would be fluid in the same way. The idea of using water came up very early on, not just because she drowns herself, but because from the start she talks about water. Káťa is attracted to water. She feels something terrible is going to happen, and that it is calling to her. Another reason is that I love water. It’s a beautiful element in nature, but at the same time it’s dangerous and threatening. We used it to mirror her isolation, because there are moments when she has claustrophobia and moments of agoraphobia. So we created a very small space somewhere representing Kabanicha’s house. Because the atmosphere there is terrible, you can’t move anything without Kabanicha making a scene and commenting on it. Then, to contrast that, we have a large space for when Káťa meets Boris and Kudrjáš meets Varvara in the forest, where we have a path in the forest. And then the water becomes an element which separates the lovers instead of joining them, as in the second act. In Káťa it’s like life – people meet and either connect or don’t. And Káťa doesn’t connect with Boris because between them there is a kind of wild river which is dangerous to cross, and in the end she drowns in it.” Robert Carsen on Káťa Kabanová in a documentary for a DVD production
Věc Makropulos – State Theatre Nuremberg
8–9
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8 Oct 2016, Beseda House
The Diary of One Patricie Částková
Ian Bostridge, Julius Drake, Václava Krejčí-Housková
Ian Bostridge
en swi as a bird flew, But le me yearning a er her For all that day, all that day through. Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared has been part of Bostridge’s repertoire for a number of years. He first performed it in a staged production in 1999 directed by Deborah Warner. This very successful project was not only performed in Britain but also toured the USA. At the piano was the wonderful English pianist Julius Drake. This was not their first meeting – the two musicians started working together in 1992 and their artistic partnership continues to this day. Julius Drake is one of the world’s leading chamber musicians, and as a pianist he has accompanied such outstanding singers as Joyce DiDonato and Gerald Finley, as well as instrumentalists. He himself says that “a pianist who works with singers must really love the words and be interested in the poem which the composer has set to music.” Ian Bostridge has also recorded The Diary of One Who Disappeared for EMI Classics, on this occasion accompanied by the composer and pianist Thomas Adès, who is a great admirer of Janáček’s music. The two musicians will be joined at the Besední dům by an alto from the Brno Opera, Václava Krejčí-Housková, along with members of the NTB Janáček Opera chorus. The programme will also include Gypsy Melodies by Antonín Dvořák and a selection from Janáček’s piano cycle On the Overgrown Path. photo: Marco Borggreve
photo: Sim Canetty-Clarke
In the summer of 1917, the 63-year-old Janáček met Kamila Stösslová in Luhačovice. The young woman became Janáček’s last great love and the inspiration for his crowning achievements. It is hardly surprising that under the influence of her bewitching eyes he recalled a feuilleton which he had cut out of the Lidové noviny newspaper a year earlier. The poem by an (at the time) unknown poet entitled From the Pen of a Self-Taught Man, about a young village boy who falls in love with a Gypsy girl, Zefka, and eventually elopes with her, fired his imagination and in his eyes Kamila became the reincarnation of the beautiful Gypsy girl. Janáček spent two years working on this collection of 22 poems in a folk style, which were later discovered to have been written by Ozef Klada, and transformed them into the unique song cycle The Diary of One Who Disappeared for tenor, alto, three female voices and piano. The first performance was given on 18 April 1921 at the Reduta Theatre in Brno. It was performed by Janáček’s students – the tenor Karel Zavřel, the alto Ludmila Kvapilová-Kudláčková and the conductor Břetislav Bakala, who played the piano part. However, the powerful format of the songs also directly lends itself to a staged production, and the first of these was not long in the waiting. It took place on 27 October 1926 in Ljubljana in Slovenia, although it was almost another twenty years until the first Czech staged production – in Plzeň on 26 July 1943. This year’s festival offers the chance to compare both ways of performing The Diary of One Who Disappeared. The first is a concert version combining the strengths of British and Czech musicians. Ian Bostridge needs no introduction to lovers of the song repertoire. In many ways this singer goes beyond traditional ideas of how to interpret classical music. His career started relatively late in life, when he was 30, as he originally seemed destined for a life in academia. A graduate in history and philosophy from Cambridge University, Ian Bostridge completed his doctoral thesis on the theme of Witchcraft in England in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Perhaps it is this academic background that has contributed to his being one of the leading performers of songs spanning several centuries and a star of the most important concert halls and festivals in Europe, Japan and North America.
One day I met a gypsy girl, lithe as a deer was she, Black hair lay on her shoulders, her eyes were deep as the sea. With searching eyes she looked at me
photo: Ilona Sochorová
text:
Julius Drake
Václava Krejčí-Housková
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13 and 14 Oct 2016, Theatre on Orlí
5 th International Theatre and Music Festival
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
photo: Archive Rocc
Who Disappeared Song cycles are actually already operas As part of the Janáček Brno 2016 festival, the civic association Opera Povera and Opera Bergen from Norway will present the following song cycles: The Mountain Maid for soprano and piano by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, and The Diary of One Who Disappeared for tenor, alto and three female voices and piano by the Czech composer Leoš Janáček, directorially linked together within a single evening. Both of these composers are unique artists and representatives of their national music, and the aim of this project is to present their intimate song cycles, which lend themselves to dramatic interpretation with their sophistication and emotional charge. e man responsible for the staging is the Slovenian opera director and stage designer Rocc, who is currently the artistic director of the Slovenian National Opera in Ljubljana and the artistic head of the Opera Povera association.
Rocc
Do you remember when you first came across Janáček’s music? The first time I really got to know it was, of course, when I was studying at JAMU. Janáček’s music spoke to me right from the start, even though I still found it difficult to listen to and fully get to grips with. The more I listen to it, the more I think that it’s probably impossible to fully get to grips with Janáček. Not long ago we had the premiere of Katya Kabanova in Ljubljana, the first time it had been performed in Slovenia in the original Czech! I have listened to Katya countless times and then just yesterday I found myself discovering more and more worlds within it. In 2010 I had my first experience of directing one of Janáček’s works – his first opera, Šárka, at the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre in Ostrava. After that I knew I needed Janáček more and more in my work! Is it difficult to turn a song cycle into a stage production? Are there any major pitfalls in The Diary of One Who Disappeared? The way I see it is that some song cycles are actually already operas and naturally lend themselves to dramatic interpretation. The Diary of One Who Disappeared is definitely one such work. Perhaps I would put the question differently: can The Diary be interpreted in a non-actorly
text:
Pavel Petráněk
way? Naturally, in our interpretation we remain faithful to the aesthetics of Opera Povera, attempting to communicate to audiences as fully as possible using the minimum of resources. For this, of course, we require exceptional singing and acting performances, otherwise it simply wouldn’t work. I’m delighted that we managed to get the wonderful Aleš Briscein for The Diary and the internationally acclaimed artist Juliette Galstian for the Grieg. What made you decide to combine this work with Grieg’s cycle The Mountain Maiden? I had the opportunity to visit the city of Bergen on the west coast of Norway, which was a great experience for me both artistically and personally. Just as Janáček is associated with Brno, so Bergen is associated with Edvard Grieg. I discovered how both composers approached many aspects of life and music in a similar way, and so the idea began to emerge of somehow bringing together these two maestros. I think that by combining these two works we have found a key which gives The Diary of One Who Disappeared and The Mountain Maid another interpretive dimension. Come and judge for yourselves!
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During its relatively short existence your association Opera Povera has already performed two important monodramas – Martin Středa by Andrew Yin Svoboda and The Diary of Anne Frank by Grigori Fried. Where do you think the strength of mono-operas lies? For Opera Povera, the staging of these masterful works follows on from the aforementioned projects as part of a cycle of musical monodramas concerned with various questions of (non-) freedom: political, socio-religious and, in this case, entirely individually internal. I believe that through a single performer a mono-opera can offer absolute concentration on a particular theme and its content. The mono-opera is not only a theatrical form, I see it more as a spiritual ritual. The performer is not just a singer and actor but at the same time a spiritual orator and rhetorician. What are your hopes for the Janáček Brno festival? I had the honour of being present virtually at the inception of this festival, and although some people would like this unique project to be more along the lines of Salzburg or Bayreuth, I would like it to remain primarily as a festival about Janáček and Brno, because it is this genius loci that gives rise to something really rare and special.
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JanĂĄÄ?ek’s choruses text:
Ondřej Pivoda
JanĂĄÄ?ek's autograph of the chorus 70,000 (JanĂĄÄ?ek Archive MM)
It is no surprise that LeoĹĄ JanĂĄÄ?ek is now known at home and abroad primarily as a composer of operas. ese days, his eleven brilliant works of music drama appear on the world’s leading opera stages, and JanĂĄÄ?ek’s name comes near the top of the list of the 20th-century opera composers whose work is most frequently staged across the world. e fact that JanĂĄÄ?ek’s choral works are at the opposite end of the scale to his operas in terms of how much they are performed and how familiar they are to contemporary audiences, however, does not detract from their beau and artistic value. is year’s JanĂĄÄ?ek Brno 2016 festival will a empt to make up for the lack of a ention which has been devoted to JanĂĄÄ?ek’s choral compositions at home and abroad. Choral singing was a part of LeoĹĄ JanĂĄÄ?ek’s life from childhood onward. When he was accepted into the foundation of the StarĂŠ Brno monastery as a nine-year-old boy, one of his duties was to sing with the choir during masses, thereby earning something towards his board and lodgings during his studies. The director of the monastery choir was Pavel KĹ™ĂĹžkovskĂ˝, a priest with an exceptional talent for composing, who became JanĂĄÄ?ek’s teacher and musical mentor. Back then the atmosphere of the StarĂŠ Brno monastery was imbued with the National Revival spirit of the time, which was diused in the Brno seminary by the philosopher and poet FrantiĹĄek MatouĹĄ KlĂĄcel and the tireless collector of folk songs FrantiĹĄek SuĹĄil. Soon after completing his studies at the Brno Teachers’ Institute and after Pavel KĹ™ĂĹžkovskĂ˝ left Brno for Olomouc in 1872, the eighteen-year-old LeoĹĄ JanĂĄÄ?ek became the head of the StarĂŠ Brno choir, where his activities as an organ player and choirmaster soon won him public recognition. It is therefore no surprise that shortly afterwards he was also selected as choir-
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master of the Svatopluk Craftsmen’s Society in Brno, an amateur group of singers whose main purpose was to preserve and awaken the national consciousness of Czech workers. During his short time at Svatopluk from 1873 to 1876, Janáček also had the opportunity to rehearse and perform his very first compositions. He composed them as echoes of folk songs, primarily modelled upon the work of his teacher Křížkovský and the songs of the composer Arnošt Förchgott-Tovačovský, which were popular at the time. From Janáček’s early male-voice choruses, True Love, based on a simple yet powerful text from Sušil’s monumental collection of folk songs, has kept its place in the repertoire of choirs. Leoš Janáček had the opportunity to acquire more valuable experience for his artistic development as choirmaster of the Brno Beseda, the most important Czech music society in Brno. Janáček was active at the Beseda from 1876 to 1879, and then again from 1882 to 1888 after he returned from his studies in Leipzig. He not only conducted choral concerts at the Beseda, but he also presented large-scale vocal–orchestral compositions with a mixed choir. The artistic high point of Janáček’s conducting at the Brno Beseda was the performance of Mozart’s Requiem in 1878 and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis a year later. Janáček also wrote several of his own compositions for the mixed choir of the Brno Beseda, including a short piece composed for the twentieth anniversary of the creation of this ensemble: Autumn Song, to lyrics by Jaroslav Vrchlický from 1880. Janáček’s most important work from this period, however, is without a doubt the Four Male-Voice Choruses to the words of folk poetry, which were written back in 1885. Janáček dedicated this cycle to Antonín Dvořák “in token of limitless respect”. In return, Janáček received from Dvořák an acknowledgement that the choruses “are original, the true Slavic spirit emanates from them (which is the main thing), and it is not some kind of Liedertafel”. Despite the fact that Dvořák was thirteen years older and already a celebrated and highly regarded Maestro, he was linked to Janáček by a firm bond of friendship. Janáček systematically promoted Dvořák’s work in Brno, and in the years 1877 and 1884 he arranged his six Moravian Duets for mixed choir with piano. The second half of the 1880s brought Janáček closer to the world of folk songs, when, as a singing teacher at the gymnasium, he became acquainted with the enthusiastic collector of folk poetry František Bartoš. Their collaboration gave rise to an extensive collection of more than 2,000 Moravian songs and also provided Janáček with an inexhaustible source of inspiration for compositions. When Leoš Janáček happened to hear a performance by the newly created Moravian Teachers’ Choral Society with its choirmaster Ferdinand Vach in Veselí nad Moravou in 1904, he could not conceal his enthusiasm and sent Vach two impressive male-voice choruses based on folk poetry from the Haná region, If You Only Knew and The Evening Witch. The quality of interpretation by the Moravian Teachers’ Choral Society (MTCS) created a paragon of Czech choral art which was to endure for a long time and inspire several generations of Czech composers, including Janáček, who found in the MTCS an ensemble capable of interpreting even the most highly demanding of choral works. Thanks to this, between 1906 and 1909 he was able to set about composing a trio of celebrated choruses based on verses by the Silesian firebrand poet Petr Bezruč, which represented the pinnacle of the composer’s choral works. The depiction of the social oppression of an individual who is even driven to suicide (in the case of Halfar the Schoolmaster and Maryčka Magdónova), and the collective “maelstrom of passionate revolt which erupts from the endless grief and power accumulated over centuries of repression”, in the words of the writer Max Brod (in the case of the chorus The 70,000), led Leoš Janáček to the unique expressivity of musical speech, by means of which he was able to emphasize the directness of Bezruč’s socially critical poetry and transform individual choruses into powerful music dramas. The composer took inspiration from the acoustic chaos of the iron and steel works in Ostrava and Vítkovice and also studied the speech melodies
of the local miners. The demanding nature of the singing parts from those choruses by Janáček was exceptional for its time and proves a real challenge for singers even today. In 1912 Ferdinand Vach even returned the score of the chorus The 70,000 to Janáček, saying it was impossible to perform. That was partly why Janáček assigned the performance of this chorus to the competition, the Prague Teachers’ Choral Society, which successfully premiered it in 1914. The period of the First World War was not a favourable one for the existence of male choral societies, whose members were mostly called up to the front. Thanks to the unflagging energy of the choirmaster Ferdinand Vach, who at that time was setting up the Moravian Women Teachers’ Choir, Janáček turned his attention to the neglected genre of female-voice choruses. One such work is the Hradčany Songs for soprano, female chorus, flute and harp from 1916. In Janáček’s interpretation, Hradčany does not represent, as one might expect, a thundering, majestic symbol of Czech statehood. On the contrary, in a series of delicate depictions of quiet corners of Hradčany, Janáček sought to express modest and tender feelings which would be linked with the gentle sound of female voices. One of Janáček’s last choral works is The Wandering Madman, a malevoice chorus with a soprano solo from 1922 based on a poem by the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. In this captivating expressive composition, the poetic motif of the eternal search resonates with the composer’s lifelong artistic pilgrimage. One interesting fact is that a passage from the work appears on Janáček’s gravestone in his final resting place in the Brno cemetery: “With his strength gone and his heart in the dust, like a tree uprooted.” Church music makes up only a fraction of Janáček’s body of work, despite the fact that it accompanied the composer throughout almost the whole of his life. In his youth he played music with his father in the organ loft of the small church in Hukvaldy; he later sang as a choral scholar; and he also played the organ and led the choir in the church of the Augustinian monastery in Staré Brno. In 1881 Janáček became the director of the newly established religious Organ School in Brno, where he worked for some 38 years. A number of Janáček’s early liturgical compositions were influenced by the Cecilian reform movement of the time, which sought to restore church music to the ideals of medieval Gregorian chant and the Renaissance Palestrina style. The composer created several such compositions during his studies in Prague in the 1870s: the festival programme will include Exaudi Deus and Introitus in festo Ss. Nominis Jesu for mixed choir with an organ accompaniment. Over the course of time, Janáček’s conception of spiritual music shifted from these works to a more general plane without being strictly bound to liturgical purposes. The glorious Hail Mary from 1904 was composed by Janáček for a concert performance in Luhačovice, and an evocative and psychologically well-developed musical setting of three parts of a mass (the unfinished Mass in E flat major from 1908) for soloists and choir with organ was written by Janáček as an example to be used during teaching at the Organ School. Many people would be surprised to hear that Janáček’s most famous and most frequently performed spiritual composition Our Father (not counting the Glagolitic Mass) was originally intended for the theatre. The music was accompanied on stage by tableaux vivants based on a cycle of the same name by the Polish painter Józef Męcina-Krzesz. The premiere of this work took place in the National Theatre in Brno 115 years ago.
Church music makes up only a fraction of Janáček’s body of work, despite the fact that it accompanied the composer throughout almost the whole of his life.
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8 Oct, 2016 Reduta Theatre (Mozart Hall)
10 Oct, 2016 Beseda House
15 Oct, 2016 Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
16 Oct, 2016 Janáček Theatre (foyer)
A distinctive strand of the concert programme for the Janáček Brno 2016 festival is made up of performances by several choirs. An interview was conducted with four choirmasters: the head of the Prague Philharmonic Choir, Lukáš Vasilek; the founder of the Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno, Petr Fiala, and of the Choir of Masaryk Universi , Michal Vajda; and the longtime chorus master of the chorus of the Janáček Opera NTB, Josef Pančík.
Four Faces of Choral Song
Pražský filharmonický sbor
Boris Klepal
photo: Petra Hajská
text:
5 th International Theatre and Music Festival
photo: Zdeněk Chrapek
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
Lukáš Vasilek: A professional concert choir is a very challenging and fast-moving operation What was the motivation for you to become a chorus master? I come from Hradec Králové and from the age of seven I sang in a local boys’ choir, Boni pueri. Choral singing literally fascinated me from the first moment and I also had a huge admiration for the choirmaster, Jiří Skopal. I wanted to do what he did. That was the very beginning, and from then on my interest only deepened, until choral singing became my profession. You present a programme about chorus masters called Conductors of Human Voices on the Czech Radio Vltava station. What is it like to wander through the Czech choral tradition? It forces me to think about Czech choral art, but also about myself. In this way I absorb the experiences of older colleagues and compare them with my own practice as a chorus master. I learn from it. I feel honoured to be able to collaborate with such figures on the radio – a greater knowledge of the Czech chorus-master tradition is even more essential for me now. What is the difference between conducting a human voice and an orchestra? Although the technical basis is similar, these two fields are otherwise quite different. The chorus master has to encompass a greater range of expression with his gestures as a result of the natural unity of music and word in vocal music. In view of this, he also guides the phrasing in a much more detailed way, anticipates the correct singing sentiment, breathing, tone and character of the sound, and makes more use of facial expressions. There are not such clear rules for conducting a choir as conducting an orchestra, so it can be guided by intuition to a much greater extent, i.e. adapted to the immediate needs of the singing group. However, it also has its downside: over time chorus masters often fall into such a specific way of conducting that only their own groups can understand them. That is why chorus masters shouldn’t just work with only one ensemble and on a limited repertoire, but should
Lukáš Vasilek
have the opportunity to refine and “purify” their conducting elsewhere and on something different. For example, with an orchestra, where it is essential to use a much purer conducting technique. You have been chorus master for the opera of the National Theatre in Prague for two years. What is the difference between an opera chorus and concert choir? An opera chorus has to master a much smaller repertoire, but on the other hand it has to know it by heart and on top of that it has to be capable of acting. That dictates the way of rehearsing and also the actual make-up of an opera chorus. A professional concert choir is a very challenging and fast-moving operation – the members have to be very flexible musically in order to be able to study the many difficult oratorios or a cappella choir parts. Here a much greater emphasis is also placed on how the ensemble works as a unit and the perfection of its sound, which is a very important parameter that is limited to a large extent in an opera chorus by the acting on stage. You also lead the Martinů Voices chamber choir, which focuses on music from the 20th century to the present. Why did you name it after Bohuslav Martinů? We are partial to the more moderate stream of 20th-century vocal music, and that’s what we’ve built our repertoire upon. In the context of Czech music, Bohuslav Martinů is its greatest representative, and that’s why, as a Czech ensemble, we chose his name. Naturally, Martinů’s music then became a core part of our basic repertoire too.
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What kind of repertoire do you consider typical for the Prague Philharmonic Choir, and what place does Leoš Janáček have in it? Definitely music from the 19th to 21st centuries – it suits us best and we enjoy it the most. And, of course, the great Janáček naturally occupies one of the most prominent places!
Petr Fiala: With all the work we have, it isn’t enough to have a good voice How would you characterize Leoš Janáček as a writer of choral works? It is necessary to look at this from two sides. On the one hand, there are vocal–dramatic works, where in addition to the choir it is necessary to pay attention to the orchestra, ensembles and many other things, and then there are a cappella choruses. These are dominated by male-voice choruses, because Janáček devoted the majority of these works to the Moravian Teachers’ Choral Society. In our repertoire we have mostly the vocal–symphonic works – that means the Glagolitic Mass, Eternal Gospel, Amarus and The Čarták on Soláň. We sometimes get round to doing the purely choral pieces too, because we perform them at a cappella concerts here and abroad – mostly pieces like the Hukvaldy Songs, The Wild Duck and so on. We don’t tend to sing the male-only pieces much, so for the Janáček Brno festival we are rehearsing the most difficult male-voice choruses, Maryčka Magdónova and 70,000, with the male section of the choir.
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For you Janáček is a local composer – how often do you perform his work in your regular programmes? We sing the Glagolitic Mass very often, perhaps more abroad than at home. Recently the Eternal Gospel and Amarus have been performed relatively frequently, but The Čarták on Soláň isn’t done very much. We have also sung some real gems like Janáček’s arrangements of Antonín Dvořák’s Moravian Duets for mixed choir.
Michal Vajda
What’s important in a choir isn’t soloists, but being able to adapt to the unit You lead the only non-professional ensemble among the choirs at the Janáček Brno festival. Isn’t that something of a handicap? It can be. But when we were approached by the festival programme board, they came with an offer of spiritual music. And that is the very basis of my work and that of the entire choir. It would be hard for us to find something to sing among other works by Janáček. We could perhaps sing some of the smaller female or male choruses, but spiritual pieces are our forte.
Petr Fiala
What is the difference between choral and solo singing – what must a soloist and a choir singer do or not do? I am an advocate of the idea that there isn’t any great difference. As long as the voice is well equipped technically, then it is capable of singing in a choir or singing solo. Of course it depends on its capacity. If it is a smaller voice, it can’t sing Verdi, Puccini or Mahler, but it can sing Mozart or Schubert. In my choir there are many people who are capable of singing classical and baroque pieces very well, so sometimes I use a quartet of soloists made up of my own singers. And in the area of baroque and classical music they often perform better than four soloists who have come together each of them from a different place and try to outdo each other by singing as loudly as possible. So if a singer is musical and well prepared technically, what he or she can sing depends only on the capacity of the voice.
However, you successfully came together with professionals from the opera chorus of the Janáček Theatre for The Miracles of Mary… At first the choirs rehearsed separately, but Mr Pančík wanted to join the two ensembles together. And they had to be joined psychologically as well – we benefited from their singing experience and they gained something from us too. Both groups became really good friends, so it really was a fusion of the two ensembles.
What kind of repertoire do you consider typical for your choir? What music do you regard as your own? Our own music is the great oratorios and cantatas, but we have to make our living, so we sing everything “from Bach to Vlach”. Starting with the great baroque oratorios, through Händel, and ending with the most contemporary music. We sing a lot of contemporary compositions, which are in demand, especially abroad. And then we have to be mindful of authenticity: it is very challenging to sing Händel’s Messiah one day and
photo: Archive PSMU
What does it mean to establish a choir, apart from having to assemble a lot of singers? How does a bunch of singers become a choir? I established the CPCB during the post-revolution euphoria, when I said to myself that Brno could have a professional concert choir just like Prague and Bratislava. And the core came from the Amititia girls’ choir and the Foerster male choir. But from the beginning I worked on the basis of auditions. I made use of the best singers from both choirs and I took on others through auditions. When graduates of the conservatory and the academy, singers with private training and even gifted people from the faculty of education started to sign up, then from the beginning I selected suitable voices. And it wasn’t just about the voices: they had to be resourceful and flexible and be able to sight-read music. With all the work we have, it isn’t enough to have a good voice.
Michal Vajda:
photo: Archive ČFSB
The Czech Republic has a very strong tradition of choral singing – why is that? It’s the result of the musicality which has been present in the Czech nation since National Revival times. Personally, however, I think that it is gradually disappearing. It is very different from how it used to be when it was said that Bohemia and Moravia were the stronghold of choral singing. Today the dividing line between amateur and professional choirs has become more obvious and the tradition is waning a little. At least from what I’ve observed over 50 years of work. Under the previous regime, amateur choirs worked very intensively to improve themselves and some of them reached a very high level. Today that isn’t the case, and it is a shame, because it means that professional choirs are also losing a nurturing ground from which they were able to recruit top singers.
Mahler’s Eighth the next. It’s up to me as chorus master to pay attention to those contours and make sure that people are singing Bach as Bach, Mozart as Mozart and Mahler as Mahler.
How does one become a choral singer? What do you need to know and go through, or what don’t you need to know and go through? Our case is a very specific one. The university has more than 40,000 students in nine faculties, and there are lots of girls with previous experience of singing in a choir. So we have enough girls who want to continue at university as well. But it’s a disaster with male voices. We take on any guy who can sing even a little in the audition and is capable of some development. We can’t be too choosy, and it’s similar to working with a children’s choir, where the older ones teach the younger ones. If it wasn’t for the people who’ve been in the choir for four or five years, then the new singers wouldn’t pick up anything. They tend to be guys from folk groups or rock ‘n’ roll bands who want to sing but have no clue what choral singing is about. They read about us somewhere, their friend invites them along: so then there’s a period of about a year and a half when they’re ‘bedding in’ and we’re glad to have them and that they’ve got used to the schedule. Because even our amateur choir rehearses at least twice a week, three times a week when there are big projects like concerts or competitions coming up, and we also have intensive weekend rehearsals.
What does a vocal coach do in a choir, and as amateurs do you need one more than professional groups do? As far as that goes, I deal with it all myself – warming up, leading the voices. The singers who come to us are quite rough, everyone has sung somewhere different, so I have to instil in them my own vision of the voice culture. It’s constant training and dealing with egos. A number of them have a superficial knowledge of singing, they might even have had some training, but I need all of them to sound unified. What’s important in a choir isn’t soloists, but being able to adapt to the unit. Everyone has a different “i” or “e” and it’s a nightmare to even that out. Altos aren’t born and it’s necessary to somehow “manufacture” them, and it’s even worse with the bass groups. We’ve never had many deep voices here though. Can you name me any deep basses in the history of our opera? No one is born with those extreme voices – not even high sopranos. And just look at the kind of things we sometimes have to sing. We were at a competition in Switzerland and the compulsory composition was Ravel’s Nicolette – that calls for a C2 from the tenors and you’re singing it with an amateur choir. In Bruckner’s Motets the normal note for the altos is a G2, so I need to put sopranos on it, but what if they have to sing an E minor? The same goes for the bass – a major D is required of them. My boys’ voices have barely broken and suddenly they’re supposed to reach that low – I would need them to be ten years older. It’s a constant struggle. How can a listener recognize a good choir? What is the measure of quality? I get excited by voice culture and when a choir sings well as a unit. And I appreciate that even more at an a-cappella concert. I also have a habit of watching the conductor, which is a kind of professional flaw: what they look like, how they motivate the ensemble. Whether they are just repeating what they learned at rehearsals or if they are putting the finishing touches to the composition during the performance – in this respect the conductor has a lot of resources at his command. What is your typical repertoire, your own music? Obviously there is no clear-cut range of compositions which suits us – they include short choruses as well as oratorios. For several years we sang some larger pieces with orchestras, and then the singers wanted to sing shorter songs a cappella. But there are outstanding compositions: Klement Slavický, Petr Řezníček, Bohuslav
Martinů…we really felt at home with these songs. And if you say to our choir, “Come on, let’s sing some Eben,” then everyone is incredibly enthusiastic. For us Eben is sacred. And then there’s Janáček’s Our Father, just perfect for us – it’s difficult, halfway towards being an oratorio, but exactly the right dimensions for us.
photo: Jana Hallová
So the main thing you need for singing in a choir is a lot of time? Definitely. Though they do have the choir as an elective subject at university and there are even some credits awarded for it. But when they’re up to their eyes in it, for example when they’re sitting their final exams, then it’s obvious that they won’t be coming to every rehearsal.
Josef Pančík: Concert singing undoubtedly helps to maintain a high musical level Josef Pančík
It’s often said that people go to see works by Janáček globally, but not in the Czech Republic. What is the situation in Brno? It’s not ideal, but I think that it’s been improving of late. For example, the staging of Jenůfa which premiered this season has been well attended. People do go to see Janáček in other countries, but the operas are only on for a short period – it’s a different system there. But he certainly is popular. Do you think Brno could become Janáček’s Bayreuth or Salzburg? I have some doubts about us achieving something of that stature here. Although Janáček wrote some great works, there aren’t really enough of them. And you can’t keep on playing the same few compositions over and over again. Other works have to be added to his, which is indeed what’s happening. Obviously, it would be ideal to attain that, but it would be impossible to do it every year, maybe not even every two years. You would have to have a longer gap so that the festival would remain special. You lead an opera chorus, but you keep it at a concert level of quality – aren’t you giving yourself unnecessary work? It contributes hugely to maintaining that level of singing. Opera is such a complex creation that sometimes musical form is sacrificed on the altar of the theatrical staging, which is not ideal. But the fact is that concert singing undoubtedly helps to maintain a high musical level. The most difficult discipline for a singer is the song recital. For a choir, is it an a-cappella concert? The training and focus of an opera chorus is slightly different. Even though almost every opera includes a few a-cappella bars, most of the singing is with the orchestra. So an opera chorus is expected to always be going at it almost flat out. For example, the space in the Janáček Theatre is enormous and the acoustics aren’t great, so the chorus members really have to give it their all. A-cappella singing is different
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and for us it is quite difficult. But because of the concerts we occasionally do, we can maintain our level. Of the choirs taking part in the festival you are in contact with the Arnold Schoenberg Chor, which regularly performs at the Theater an der Wien, but also gives concerts… Yes, I know them. It’s a wonderful choir. Richard Novák said to me that he’d like to see you work with Petr Fiala, to see your two choirs together on one stage. Would you like to do something big together? In terms of the time required, trying to combine two different types of choir like the Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno and us would be practically impossible. However, we are going to give a concert of large-scale choral pieces together with the Masaryk University Choir, which is a very good ensemble. We did The Miracles of Mary with them and we worked together incredibly well. Is it possible for an opera chorus to have something like a “characteristic repertoire”? I think that we’ve been successful with Dvořák’s large-scale oratorios. At one time we did St Ludmilla – it was in 1985, when it had been out of fashion for years. At the time I was still leading the Brno Madrigal Singers. So we combined both choirs, which gave us about 105 people, directed by Jiří Pinkas. As the former chorus master at the Radio Chorus, he had a very intimate relationship with that type of music. We hit it off together and did the Requiem, Stabat Mater, The Wedding Shirt and all those things. Naturally, the Glagolitic Mass is also one of ours. For opera we’re dependent upon what is being performed, but those huge “Verdis”… it’s unbelievable how people still turn out to see Nabucco, for example. We’ve also been performing it since 1985 – it’s our musical “curse”. And now The Miracles of Mary, we all enjoy that.
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From the House of Dead Director: Calixto Bieito Conductor: Marcus Bosch Nuremberg State Theatre
Leoš Janáček
Main cast: Luka Kuzmič (Filka Morozov): Tilmann Unger Gorjančikov: Kay Stiefermann Aljeja: Cameron Becker
e Catalan director Calixto Bieito is a man whose name induces panic among lovers of traditionally staged operas. Despite this, his productions regularly sell out the most prestigious opera houses, whether it be a cannibalistic Parsifal by Wagner, Puccini’s Turandot set in a doll factory in Belfast, a Jenůfa in which the Kostelnička murders the baby right there on stage, or Beethoven’s Fidelio in the s le of the Matrix – violence, perversion and large quantities of blood and sex are regular features. Bieito’s productions are o en compared to the work of film directors like Quentin Tarantino and Pedro Almodovar. Bieito’s production of From the House of the Dead is his second encounter with Leoš Janáček’s music. It was originally produced for the theatre in Basel, where it had its premiere in 2009. It was part of the Nuremberg eatre’s repertoire in spring 2016 and the production garnered very positive reviews, both for the directing and the musical interpretation. One of the goals of our festival is to provide the opportuni to compare different interpretive approaches to Janáček’s operas, and Bieito’s staging of From the House of the Dead will certainly be an interesting contrast to Robert Carsen’s poetic production of Káťa Kabanová.
text: Patricie Částková photo: Ludwig Olah
5 th International Theatre and Music Festival
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
12 Oct 2016, Janáček Theatre Unsuitable for people under 18
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / 23 March 2016
We don’t have to like all of the details from the themes of sex and crime in Bieito’s artistic works, however, we can admire the intensity which he brings to the dramaturgy of the work. […] Here illusion and reality merge […] The conductor Marcus Bosch and the Nuremberg State Philharmonic confirmed this extremely powerfully with naked, unshaded diction, ecstatic excitement and with edges as sharp as the filigree in a wood carving. [...] And with its impressive male chorus, the Nuremberg Opera offers an experience which, thanks to the individuals’ attention to detail, leaves a long-lasting impression. It is not fair to pick out any particular performers, however, Gorjančikov by Kay Stiefermann, Skuratov by Edward Moute, and in particular Šiškov by Antonio Yango, portraying the figure of the suffering Christ, impressed with their pathos, which was miles away from overly exaggerated sentimentality. Gerhard R. Koch
18–19
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curt / May 2016
A breathtaking, stunning realization. Calixto Bieito’s direct and relentlessly bleak production, performed by Marcus Bosch and the State Philharmonic, who are ideal for this concept, as are the soloists, led by Antonio Yang... Dieter Stoll
B5 aktuell – Die Kultur / 13 March 2016
The director […] leads the audience into a cave of humanity, to the death of life, in order to capture here an elusive, almost lost, inconsolable poetry. [...] It is to the opera house’s credit that it has included this demanding opera in its repertoire. [...] Bieito’s outstanding art is shown in the way he portrays characters in their emotional worlds, without getting lost in sentimentality. It isn’t to make the criminal an object of curiosity, rather the focus of his attention is on the sensitive description of people’s lives and an almost essential demand for empathy. [...] Under the direction of Marcus Bosche the music draws fully from the drama and expression of Janáček’s score. The ensemble of soloists and the grandiose chorus under the guidance of Tarma Vaaska are perfectly convincing as a rippling, wandering, imponderable mass of people. Whoever accepts the challenge and attends this exceptional evening of opera lasting only an hour and a half will not forget it in a hurry, and in the best sense. Barbara Bogen
20–21
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17 Oct 2016, Mahen Theatre
The Fall of the Antichrist
e Moravian eatre Olomouc opera and opere a company presents a demanding production of the opera The Fall of the Antichrist for the festival. is opera by the German-Jewish composer Viktor Ullmann, who died tragically in Auschwitz in 1944, was given its Czech premiere by the ensemble on 14 October 2014, the 70th anniversary of the composer’s tragic death.
Viktor Ullmann Conductor: Miloslav Oswald Director: Jan AntonĂn PitĂnskĂ˝ Moravian Theatre Olomouc
Patricie ÄŒĂĄstkovĂĄ
photo: Pavel MalĂ˝
text:
“I was immediately touched by the opera and also by the life of Viktor Ullmann. So it was excitement at ďŹ rst and then questions, questions and more questions,â€? explained the director. He believes that the theme of the opera is clear. “The message is very simple; we know these stories from fairy tales and legends. Evil always wants to get hold of what is most beautiful in the world, control it and use it for its own foolish ends.â€? Jan AntonĂn PitĂnskĂ˝
In 1928 the Swiss writer and anthroposophist Albert Steen wrote The Fall of the Antichrist, a dramatic sketch about a 20th-century apocalypse. In 1935 this visionary and prophetic work became the libretto for an opera of the same name by Viktor Ulmann. The opera The Fall of the Antichrist is a multilayered vision of the rule of the Regent, who claims he will rid mankind of its dependence on nature. The Regent imprisons the Technician, the Artist and the Priest. The Technician succumbs to his temptations and constructs a spaceship designed to harness the power of the sun. The Priest begins work on a new cult and the Artist is supposed to celebrate the Regent’s work and eternal peace. However, the Artist sees the true nature of the dictator and tyranny and reveals the Regent to be the Antichrist. Since its premiere, the production has met with an enthusiastic response, not only “at homeâ€? in Olomouc but also at the National Theatre in Prague and in Dornach in Switzerland. The production has also garnered praise from music critics, and in February of this year it received the Director’s Award at the 2015 Opera Festival in Prague. Another mark of success was the Theatre News Award for the 2014/15 season in the Opera category. Some of the individual artists have also won awards, and Milan VlÄ?ek was nominated for the ThĂĄlie Award for his performance as the Artist.
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The Janáček festival isn’t just for adults! Children can also look forward to a packed programme selected especially for them. On 15 October there will be a workshop in the foyer of the Janáček eatre on the theme of Janáček and folk music, organized by Valerie Maťašová and her Brno Children’s Choir. And that’s not all – there will also be a screening of an animated version of Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen and a charming production of Ravel’s opera The Child and the Spells, where the Chorus of the South Bohemian eatre Opera will show us what magic can be concealed within a home at night.
photo: Archive South Bohemian Theatre
Festival for Children
The Child and the Spells
The Child and the Spells Maurice Ravel Conductor: Mario De Rose Director: SKUTR / Lukáš Trpišovský and Martin Kukučka South Bohemian Theatre 14 Oct 2016, 6pm, Mahen Theatre The tale of a disobedient schoolboy who is able to communicate with the things around him using a secret language. This is the ideal introduction to the mysterious world of opera for the whole family. “It is not just for children. I think that adults will also get a lot out of it, in particular mothers with young children. I think that the opera is mainly for people who enjoy delving into fantasy.” Martin Kukučka “Put simply: an absolutely wonderful performance. Playful, light, actionpacked, musically interesting, with beautiful sets and costumes. The family opera The Child and the Spells, a new production by the South Bohemian Theatre, ushers the audience into a child’s world of wild and crazy fantasy.” Deník, Jaroslava Rodičová
The Cunning Little Vixen
photo: Archive ČT
Leoš Janáček animated version, BBC and Czech TV 9 Oct 2016, 3pm, Reduta Theatre
The Cunning Little Vixen
This unique animated version of Leoš Janáček’s famous opera was created by the BBC in Britain in collaboration with Czech Television. It was the brainchild of the conductor Kent Nagano, who was looking for a way to appeal to children. Nagano prepared a shortened, hour-long musical version and the animator Geoff Dunbar gave it a visual form based on Lolek’s original drawings. It first came out in English, but soon afterwards it was released in a Czech version, which was recorded here in Brno.
22–23
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15 and 16 Oct 2016, Janáček Theatre
Bluebeard’s Castle Béla Bartók Bluebeard: Anders Lorentzson Judith: Katarina Giotas
Expectation Arnold Schönberg Woman: Katarina Karnéus Man: Anders Lorentzson
Director: David Radok Conductor: Marko Ivanović Janáček Opera NTB in collaboration with Opera Göteborg
One of the greatest Czech directors, David Radok first brought to the Brno stage a very successful production of Janáček’s Makropulos Affair. Now he is returning, once again in collaboration with the Swedish company Opera Göteborg, but this time with two outstanding works from the early 20th century. Although Schoenberg’s monodrama Expectation, about a woman waiting in a forest for her lover, and Bartok’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle, based on Perrault’s fairy tales, were created independently of each other, they are linked by the same psychological themes – expectation, hope and fear, which eventually grow into a frightening realization. David Radok has used this to combine the two works into a closed unit, where one story grows into the next.
photo: Mats Bäcker Bluebeard’s Castle – Katarina Giotas
24–25
JanĂĄÄ?ek
Marta TĂśpferovĂĄ
We don’t know when the expression that someone ‘goes to jazz’ ďŹ rst came into use, and we’ll probably never know, because it certainly happened many times and in dierent places, and
photo: Archive Marte TĂśpferovĂĄ
Iva BittovĂĄ
MiloĹĄ Ĺ tÄ›droĹˆ
photo: Archive Iva BittovĂĄ
text:
today it no longer ma ers. I remember when I was in my youth in the late 1960s and a record came out which many people liked called Jazz Goes to Beat. If jazz was to go to beat, then why couldn’t various artists and institutions go to jazz? What was JanĂĄÄ?ek’s relationship to jazz? When did he ďŹ nd out about it, how did he react to it and what do we know about this? Before the First World War it is unlikely that JanĂĄÄ?ek would have encountered the pre-history of jazz, which in this country would only have been found in Prague during
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photo: Archive Emil Viklický
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
Goes to Jazz…
performances of the tango. He had some experience of operetta music and even praised some things as a reviewer in the 1880s, though the later operettas of the pre-war era evidently didn’t do much for him. Everything connected with jazz started with the new republic. After the Vienna performance of Jenůfa in February 1918, which took place at the very end of the previous era as one of the final cultural-political attempts to preserve the integrity of the state, Janáček was completely transformed. After many years of isolation when he no longer dared to hope that his works would be successful, following the premieres of Jenůfa in Prague in 1916 and in Vienna in 1918 he stepped onto the European music scene as a new and important figure, regardless of the fact that he was already in this sixties. Brno also underwent significant changes within the new republic. Janáček was fully aware of this and described it clearly in his feuilleton My City. Brno became much more Czech after the war, and after the establishment of Greater Brno, which incorporated quarters that had long had transport and other links with the centre, the town began to take on the appearance of a city. The Czechs in Brno benefited greatly from all of this – in 1919 a new university was founded, and so Brno became a university town. The city centre and suburbs were modernized – the city’s functionalist architecture became the most important (and perhaps only) style that the Czechs could hold up against German historicism – and the Czechs gained a controlling stake in the beautiful and, for its time, modern theatre with lighting by Edison (even though this wasn’t done in a very ‘kosher’ way...). The daily newspaper Lidové noviny, which had been set up by the young lawyer Adolf Stránský, had been operating in Brno for a number of years, and it soon became a prospering modern newspaper of a high standard, thanks to some outstanding figures. Janáček was a regular contributor to Lidové noviny from the outset. He was one of its important cultural writers and he got most of his information about culture and politics from the paper. It is no coincidence that it was the Lidové noviny newspaper which provided him with a source of inspiration for such works as The Diary of One Who Disappeared, the operas The Cunning Little Vixen and From the House of the Dead and a number of other compositions; for example, his Nursery Rhymes, inspired by illustrators from Lidové noviny (Ondřej Sekora, Josef Lada), and the Danube symphony. In the 1920s he would occasionally have been able to read about jazz in Lidové noviny, and as he was actively involved in concert life and was the chairman of the newly established Club of Moravian Composers, he came into contact with the new art form of jazz and also derived inspiration from it. Soon the first jazz-inspired compositions appeared in Brno as a postwar reaction by European musicians to this new strong musical stimulus brought over by the American army at the end of the First World War.
Emil Viklický
What was Janáček familiar with from this new music and what might he have responded to? He heard Igor Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale (Istorija soldata – the original title which it was given in Switzerland, of course, corresponded to Ramuz’s French story) at a concert organized by the aforementioned Club of Moravian Composers in Brno on 9 April 1923. He got hold of the piano score and later heard Stravinsky’s Piano Rag Music (3 December 1926) played by Erwin Schulhoff. Schulhoff admired Janáček and wrote to him, and at that time was one of the biggest and best promoters of jazz music in Czechoslovakia. However, none of this means that Janáček was an admirer of jazz and the new trends it gave rise to. Quite the reverse. He registered it, but took a critical approach to it. The main bone of contention was evidently opera. In November 1927 the Städtische Oper Berlin sent Janáček, as one of the foremost opera composers, a questionnaire that led him to formulate his position on many of these questions. Probably the briefest summary of his position was contained in one answer: “To deny the development of opera would mean to deny the development of the human spirit and the human intellect. To live like a hermit, or to be a megaphone on everyday scenes from life (operetta, revue, film) – both are unsuitable, wretched. Like cigarette smoke, fumes, weeds, ash...” In a definitive reply in German to Berlin Opera’s magazine, Janáček moderated his tone somewhat: “The inspiration behind the survey was Krenek’s opera Jonny spielt auf – performed in this country under the title Jonny vyhrává. At first this opera by the 26-year-old Ernst Krenek (born 1900) was considered to be a jazz opera. Today, however, upon closer analysis and the opera’s return to the stage, we now know that it is far more a case of expressionist verism with elements of jazz, with the action of this purely metropolitan opera taking place in a hotel bar.” Janáček saw the opera and considered young Krenek (wrongly, of course) to be a “megaphone on everyday scenes from life”. I was fortunate enough as a young man to be able to interview Krenek when he was seventy, as the then State Philharmonic was giving a concert for him. I mentioned this situation to him and he told me with a smile: “Back then Janáček was right in his own way... I admire him. I saw The Makropulos Affair in Brno at that time and From the House of the Dead after his death, and I wrote an enthusiastic review of the opera.”
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Jazz…
photo: Archive Polajka / Nikolaj Nikotin Ensemble
Eugen Prochác
photo: Archive Polajka / Nikolaj Nikotin Ensemble
Nikolaj Nikitin
photo: Archive Polajka / Nikolaj Nikotin Ensemble
Janáček began to compose in the same way that he captured folk song and music. Behind this process was the systematic, almost daily collection of speech melodies, which he tried to consistently separate from the process of artistic creation. It is this Janáček that our jazz players turn to today, sensing in him a rudimentary force similar to the force which they themselves seek and find every day.
Ľuboš Šrámek
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However, there was interest in jazz in the circles Janáček moved in. At one point I received a cassette recording of a ninety-year-old woman from Písek, who as a young girl had seen Janáček with Kamila Stösslová at a Sokol dance, what we would call a disco today – at that time this meant playing new gramophone records, certainly dancing, and consequently jazz music. According to the old lady who witnessed it, he didn’t look at all happy… Naturally, Janáček’s pupils were also interested in jazz – particularly Vilém Petrželka, who, several years after Janáček’s death, included a “jazz band” in his cantata Nicholas the Sailor, based on a poem by Jiří Wolker. From time to time, there was evidence of greater tolerance towards jazz – for example, the atmosphere at the Prague Conservatory was such that the 21-year-old Jaroslav Ježek was able to graduate under the teachers A. Hába and K. B. Jirák with a piano concerto in a decidedly jazz style including elements of foxtrot and tango. At the Brno Club of Moravian Composers there was even a lecture during Janáček’s chairmanship by Henry Cowell, an American from Los Angeles who admired Janáček and asked him to accept honorary membership of The New Music Society of California. Janáček accepted this membership and Cowell returned to Brno several more times. His method of playing the piano with the elbow and fist later established itself worldwide as ‘clusters’ and Cowell became John Cage’s teacher. These remarks are intended to serve as historical background to the concert Janáček goes to jazz, to justify this approach (as I will attempt to do more fully later), and to explain the circumstances in which this project arose. At the start of the 1970s – during the period when Normalization was really ‘gathering momentum’ in Czechoslovakia – a well-known English rock group released an album on which the first song was, surprisingly, one called Knife Edge. When Don Sparling, a native speaker living in Brno, and I had listened to it about fifty times because of the lyrics and to identify it precisely, we immediately realized that it was the start of the Sinfonietta masterfully transformed into a rock format with lyrics. The magazine Melodie then printed a review of the record where some smart alec said that it was a wonderful example of a British melody. I wrote to the editors and they printed my comments, though without the pejorative comments about the reviewer... One final recollection. In 1988 there was a big conference on Czech music in Saint Louis, Missouri, which had been organized by Michael Beckerman, a great American expert on Dvořák and Janáček and an honorary doctor of Palacký University in Olomouc. I went along to give a paper on the reconstruction of Janáček’s Danube symphony, which was performed in a grand music hall by Leonard Slatkin. The organizer, Michael Beckerman, our friend and academic intern in the 1970s who speaks good Czech, organized everything so professionally and selflessly that there were only about five minutes left for his paper. And because he wanted to stick strictly to the allotted time, he withdrew his paper, and as a conductor and pianist promptly played a jazz and ragtime improvisation on the theme of Janáček is going to Saint Louis. And because it is the second city of jazz after New Orleans, it is worth mentioning before this jazz concert, the roots of which stretch back to 1988 and St Louis on the Mississippi. And what about the encounter between jazz and Janáček at this year’s festival? What will these juxtapositions produce? There will be five completely different and personal approaches. The majority of them are linked to Janáček’s preoccupation with the folk song and folk music. Here it should be stressed that in his late thirties Janáček spent practically a decade in a strict, voluntary seclusion in which he believed folk songs and music to be the only artistic phenomenon in music and composed only in order to promote or express this basic idea. At that time he learned about the everyday nature of folk songs and, unlike any other Czech composer, he went beyond merely collecting to explore the less well-known facets
photo: Archive Polajka / Nikolaj Nikotin Ensemble
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
Miroslav Vitouš
of folklore and its everyday nature. He understood that apart from beauty there was something here that he called truth, which might not sit at all comfortably with the cosy, ‘drawing-room’ idea of folk song. Janáček knew about the social background of this culture; he knew the musicians’ families and how they lived. All of this completely transformed him, and for more than ten years he practically isolated himself from Czech classical music. His initial success in Prague was as a folklorist – Czech music didn’t want and didn’t need the composer in him. And so it was that Janáček somehow didn’t age, and just before he turned fifty he had a new artistic beginning. The regional Moravian composer, one of many, was replaced by someone who found his own path to European verism, impressionism and the beginnings of expressionism without anyone in our country noticing. The most obvious external sign of this transformation was Janáček’s manuscripts. The neat manuscripts from the monastery, foundation and school, which could be immediately played or sung by the musicians, were transformed into a remarkable assortment of rapidly notated, abbreviated creative bursts. And so Janáček began to compose in the same way that he captured folk song and music. Behind this process was the systematic, almost daily collection of speech melodies, which he tried to consistently separate from the process of artistic creation. It is this Janáček that our jazz players turn to today, sensing in him a rudimentary force similar to the force which they themselves seek and find every day. For many years Emil Viklický has worked with Janáček’s melodies and compositions, juxtaposing them with his own sensibility. In his case it is a kind of retroactive juxtaposition of Janáček’s simplicity, his almost minimalist expression – which also impressed the likes of Steve Reich – with a modern jazz attempt at harmonic richness. In his own unique way, Viklický turns Janáček away from his intervals and simple ostinatos towards the harmonic richness which Vítězslav Novák introduced into folk music and which influenced approaches towards folk song and music for many years. Iva Bittová, a great talent who combines song, violin and phonetic expression, is completely different and has a much greater affinity with folk music. She was the first to use Janáček’s Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs in an entirely new way in her interpretation with the Škampa Quartet – this year she is joining forces with the wonderful percussionists from the OK Percussion Duo to interpret some distinctively Janáčkian sections of compositions, miniatures and speech melodies as well as complete compositions. Expectations are similarly high for the recital Tales from My Diary – Nikolaj Nikotin Ensemble and Miroslav Vitouš. The jazz adaptation of the Sinfonietta by the Didrik Ingvaldsen Orchestra is reminiscent of the earlier effort by the group Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Marta Töpferová will once again delve into Janáček’s favourite folk songs. Just how, and how well, all of these artists will measure up to Janáček and his huge legacy against a background of jazz, rock, folk and other styles will be revealed at the festival. Let’s hope for the best possible results.
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Janáček Has a Gift for Tapping into Deep Emotions e outstanding pianist Ivo Kahánek will perform at the Janáček Brno festival with an orchestra, as a soloist, and also accompanying a song recital. We had a few questions for him and for one of our foremost soprano singers, Martina Janková. photo: Archive Ivo Kahánek
text:
Ivo Kahánek
Boris Klepal
What is Leoš Janáček’s significance as a composer of piano music – what is unusual and unique about him for musicians? With Janáček even the basic source of inspiration is interesting. Other composers are inspired by the human voice or by instrumentation, but Janáček’s inspiration comes from folk music and is linked to the cimbalom style of playing. Janáček’s piano works have a lot of Romantic traits, but they always “bristle” into something different at the last moment. To deprive Janáček of the Romanticism and beauty which are undoubtedly part of his work would be a mistake. But then again it would be a mistake to deprive him of his roughness and “ugliness”. Capturing both of these aspects correctly is a very specific feature of his compositions. When I look at most of Janáček’s piano repertoire, then it seems to me that he is always trying to resolve the conflict between a person who is going through an incredibly intense experience, and fate, which is emotionless and absolute. This conflict is present in the Sonata 1.X.1905, in The Overgrown Path, in practically everything he wrote. It’s another characteristic of Janáček. How often do you include Leoš Janáček’s music in your concert programmes – is it popular with organizers and audiences? I include Janáček very often because I like it so much. I play all of his piano works, and it’s actually very good music for shaping the dramaturgy of concerts. It always sounds nice to me, even in the way it bristles – it is beautiful music. He has a gift for tapping into very deep emotions and opening the floodgates to unpleasant things, and, you know, I don’t think I’ve met anyone who is indifferent to Janáček. You also get a different kind of applause than when you’re playing, for example, Chopin. After Janáček the applause begins slowly, as if the audience is slightly perplexed, but then it builds up for a very long time. With the showier pieces there’s more of an explosion. You are also going to play Bela Bartok’s Piano Concerto and Peasant Songs. What connects Bartok and Janáček and what divides them? They are connected by their relative geographical proximity, their temperament and the inspiration they derived from folk music. They’re definitely divided by their piano stylization, in which Bartok went further. The human voice played an important role for Janáček – it did for Bartok too, of course, but Bartok was a professional pianist. I think that both of them had a bit of an obsessive streak, which is more apparent with Bartok, and his means of expression are also more extreme. With Bartok, unlike with Janáček, there is not a hint of ornamentation – he has to extract the maximum from each tone. I have never heard Janáček play, but I imagine that it would be the kind of temperament which explodes, even in terms of decibels. However, there are still some
10 and 14 Oct 2016, Vila Tugendhat recordings of Bartok as a pianist, and an interesting factor in them is a kind of quietness. Both composers are very relevant to today. We live in an age which emphasizes the absolute ease of everything and which therefore crushes any kinds of emotions and deep experiences. A person is truly alive at that moment when they have some kind of conflict within themselves, and with both composers there is a tremendous urgency to communicate, but there is no simplicity. You cannot just listen to their music – either you participate in it or you don’t. In one of the concerts you are going to accompany the soprano Martina Janková and the baritone Roman Hoza. Generally, is this not a rather thankless task for the pianist? It’s a thankless task in PR terms – I’ll say that straight out. When I was recording a Janáček CD with Martina Janková and Tomáš Král, we regarded it as a chamber project where each person is irreplaceable. But then nine out of ten reviews will be about her, and all they’ll say about the pianist is that he accompanied her sensitively. But the work itself was so good that it makes up for those kinds of things. And it’s all the same to me whether they write three lines or ten lines about me in the newspapers.
Are you looking forward to the concerts in the Tugendhat Villa? Won’t the setting of this world-famous building offer strong competition for the music? I’ve only been in the Tugendhat Villa once for about ten minutes and the space is so contagious and fascinating that I can already see myself there at the piano. In particular the interplay with the space that the architect opened up is very empowering, because experiencing the music within a space will be something completely different in the villa. So I’m not worried that there will be any competition. photo: Markus Senn
5 th International Theatre and Music Festival
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
Martina Janková
Martina Janková and her declaration of love for Janáček Audiences normally associate you with early music. What led you to Janáček? I grew up in Frýdlant nad Ostravicí and when I was four years old I started singing at cimbalom concerts with the Kotek family. They are still well known for their tradition of collecting folk poetry. In 1906 Janáček himself went along to Frýdlant to see one of their ancestors, Ignác Kotek, and in his feuilleton Thoughts Along the Way he wrote: “It is only from living songs that classical music can be developed in the same style… Our compositions follow on from the playing of the Koteks, the Máneks, the Petereks...musicians, cimbalom players and pipers who are still alive today.” So from childhood I had the opportunity to experience our “family jewels”, and the first violinist Štěpán Kotek gave me an old first edition of Janáček’s collection Hukvaldy Poetry in Songs. Later on, at the Ostrava Conservatory, I came across his collection Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs and I admired how cleverly and sensitively Janáček had adapted our songs for piano. I’ve been singing for 25 years now and I’ve recorded songs by Dvořák, Mussorgsky, Strauss, Schubert…but until 2015 I still had an “outstanding debt” to Moravia and Janáček.
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In what way do you have an affinity with folk poetry? At the Prague Spring it made up your entire programme, set to music by Janáček, but also by the likes of Brahms, Respighi and Falla. I adapted the programme for the Prague Spring around this, and I also included our Lachian region and Janáček within the context of other important European composers who also demonstrated their love for their country and the treasure of folk music through their arrangements. The subtitle for the Prague Spring programme was A Tribute to Jarmila Novotná. Who would you dedicate the concert at the Tugendhat Villa to? The title “Tribute to Jarmila Novotná” refers to a series which has been part of Prague Spring for three years, featuring recitals by Czech singers who are well known abroad. So, for example, last year Adam Plachetka appeared as part of this series, and this year my recital is part of it. It’s a misleading title as far as my programme goes. In my programme I declare my love for Moravia and Leoš Janáček.
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Speech Melodies Are Windows into People’s Souls... Steve Reich and the influence of Janáček To be honest I was a big Bartok student. Though of course he was dead by then. I studied his work at the Julliard Conservatory and the majority of the time was spent on his 4th and 5th quartets. And years later, probably in 1988, I wrote the composition “Different trains”. I used the spoken word, the melody of parts of sentences, no song, but the melody of a woman’s voice from Chicago. And when I told my students about it, there was an older man in the class, probably someone from the faculty, and he put his hand up and said, “Do you know Janáček’s work?” And I, slightly embarrassed, said, “No, I don’t.” And he said, “Well, you should.” The next day I went to a bookshop, we still have shops with books, and I bought… It was called “Janáček’s Uncollected Essays”. And several of those were about speech melodies. He used a beautiful simile. He said that speech melody is like a water lily whose roots run deep into the human soul. He made notes in his book and one of them had the speech melody of a train conductor announcing the stations. Once in German… A major seventh. Yuck! And then you hear the beautiful fifth chord. That’s Czech.
photo: Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., New York
Janáček's speech melodies (Janáček Archive MM)
Beryl Korot and Steve Reich on The Cave (selection) Interview by Jonathan Cott
How did the idea for The Cave originate? BK: We had a meeting at Ellen’s Coffee Shop around the corner, because we’d been talking about collaborating, and we felt we had to be on neutral territory to continue our discussions. Steve came with the story about Abraham as the idol-breaker, the iconoclast. In my reading, I had been struck by the story in the Bible of the three strangers (actually angels) who come to visit Abraham while he recovers from his circumcision, and who foretell the birth of his son Isaac and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (over which he later argues with God). Not knowing who they are, but always showing hospitality towards strangers, he runs to fetch a calf. At this point the text leaves off and the oral tradition kicks in. He chases a calf into a cave and there he sees shadows. He knows intuitively that they are the shadows of Adam and Eve, as he also senses something verdant and lush, and again he intuits: this is the Garden of
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11 Oct 2016, Mahen Theatre photo: Alice Arnold
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
is a man who has a totally different conceptual take on the true focus for human worship – one that is unified, invisible, and ultimately ethical. And that view ultimately prevails, and we are still living with that view.
Beryl Korot a Steve Reich
Eden. At that moment he knows that this is the place where he and his family will be buried, and he takes the calf and returns to feed his guests. That story was magical to me because that simple act of fetching a calf to perform an act of hospitality for strangers connects Abraham with the prehistorical mother and father of all humanity. And the cave still exists, though underneath a partly Herodian, Byzantine, and mostly Islamic structure today in Hebron. And that was important, that there was actually a place that existed now that was connected to events which took place so long ago, that I could actually travel to with my camera. SR: Over a year before the meeting, Beryl and I decided to collaborate based on the true underpinnings of the piece, which had nothing to do with the cave or any particular content. I was coming out of Different Trains and Beryl was coming out of Text and Commentary and Dachau. The true underpinnings were our interest in making a new kind of musical theatre based on videotaped documentary sources. The idea was that you would be able to see and hear people as they spoke on the videotape and simultaneously you would see and hear on-stage musicians doubling them – actually playing their speech melodies as they spoke.
And the visual style? BK: There are no precedents in video as there are for a composer. It’s basically a new medium with a developing vocabulary. But in the early 1970s when I made my first multiple-channel installation, Dachau 1974, I was quite concerned about precedents, and I looked both to the film medium and to the ancient technology of the loom to determine how to work in multiples.
And it is the thoughts I had then which I drew on to create my work in The Cave. For one, the work, even though you are viewing multiples, remains fiercely frontal, and is to be read as one. That is my allegiance to film. But to create techniques in this new format to relate a narrative I turned to the ancient programming tool of the loom, and conceived of each channel as representing a thread. I then proceeded to make non-verbal narrative works by carefully timing and juxtaposing interrelated images, and by creating individual rhythms for each channel by alternating image and grey-leader pause. Those techniques became the underpinnings for the visualisation of Steve’s score. He gave me the audio for the talking-heads channel. It was up to me to provide the rest and make it work with the score. I chose five screens because of the variety of possibilities you have for interrelating the different threads, so to speak, and because you can still perceive five as one, thus maintaining a tight visual focus.
Why this family? Why Abraham? SR: Abraham is about as radical and visionary a person as we’ve ever had. He lived in a world where people saw the forces of nature as the highest value. The sun, the moon, the stars, trees, various statues – they worshipped these things – Abraham said, ‘none of the above’. There is a story in both the Midrash in Judaism and in the Koran in Islam about Abraham breaking the idols in his father’s idol factory. He puts his life on the line by doing that and in both traditions is miraculously saved from the fiery furnace that King Nimrod throws him into. Here
32–33
I gather you didn’t use a libretto. SR: Instead of writing a libretto or having one written, we started out with a story from two holy texts; the Bible and the Koran and some of their associated literature. Then we began asking ‘Who for you is Abraham/Sarah/ Hagar/ Ishmael/Isaac?’ to Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans. From their answers we edited out the rest of our libretto. I don’t really feel comfortable with the idea of singers acting Biblical roles. We really have no idea how these 4,000-yearold characters looked, and it’s always awkward when someone portrays them. The reality is that Abraham and the others only live in the words and thoughts of the living. In our piece, The Cave, they live in the words of the people we interviewed. I remember trying to explain this back in 1989 to an opera set designer we thought might work on the piece, and he just couldn’t get it. He kept insisting that he couldn’t begin his work until he had a finished libretto. That was how he worked, click click, and no other way. Of course a few weeks later our original set designer, John Arnon, got the idea immediately, as did Richard Nelson, our original lighting director, and Carey Perloff, our original stage director. Anyway, the fact is that the libretto was finished in January 1993 when the piece was completed. BK As it turned out, the work is a narrative told three times from the points of view of three different cultures. We had a general outline as we began, then a general working procedure, and the libretto evolved as the music and video evolved. What should be on our minds as we experience The Cave? SR: Well, on the one hand, that perhaps this is your story. Maybe you’ve dismissed it, or ignored it for a long time. But you’re free to return to it. You came from here. Do you wish to keep your distance or do you want to reacquaint yourself? On the other hand, just in terms of the music, you may find the many speech melodies an unusual musical guide to personality. As Janáček said, ‘… Speech melodies are windows into people’s souls … For dramatic music they are of great importance’. Important because it’s impossible to separate the music from the person speaking.
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Marta TĂśpferovĂĄ
photo: Archiv Marta TĂśpferovĂĄ
16 Oct 2016, Theatre Reduta (Mozart Hall)
e singer, composer and lyricist, Marta TĂśpferovĂĄ, the daughter of Czech actors, grew up in the backstage of the theatre. At the age of eleven she emigrated to the USA with her mother and sister. She started singing when she was eight, at ďŹ rst classical music and then later her appreciation of Latin American music led her to the intensive study of Latin American song. She has wri en more than eigh compositions and has produced seven albums. As part of her international tours she has performed at prestigious festivals and concert halls including Blue Note, the World Music Festival in Chicago, the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Jazz Festival Royale in ailand, the Vienna Jazz Festival, the Hague Jazz Festival, the London Jazz Festival, New Morning in Paris and many other venues in Argentina, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. A er many years living in the USA Marta TĂśpferovĂĄ returned to her native country and set up the Milokraj project, which draws from her musical and cultural roots. She wrote a collection of songs inspired mainly by Moravian folk music, chamber music, and the perceptive listener will also notice the gentle inuence of Marta’s long-standing relationship with music from Latin America, Spain and her life in New York. Milokraj have produced an entirely new programme for the JanĂĄÄ?ek Brno 2016 festival.
5 th International Theatre and Music Festival
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
I Take Inspiration from Folk Music text:
You come from Moravia. Do you feel an affinity to Moravian folk music? Did you sing it at home when you were young? I was born in Ostrava and my mum spent a lot of time in the Beskydy mountains when I was young. There I apparently heard Moravian folk music and cimbalom music, which is why it still affects me strongly, especially when I hear it live. Moravian folk song fascinates me for many reasons, principally its temperament, its harmonies, the syncopation and the unexpected melodic cadences and changes in tempo. I sang at home with my parents and older sister. Also my ancestors on my mother’s side were amateur actors and musicians, so I guess we have it in our blood. For a long time now you’ve been interested in Latin American music both as a musician and a composer. When did you first hear Leoš Janáček’s music and what led you to it? I knew some of Leoš Janáček’s songs when I was young, particularly Moravian Folk Poetry in Song, but up until recently I had only sung a few of them, a cappella or in other arrangements. Because I lived in the USA for so long it never occurred to me to approach someone to try out this repertoire with Janáček’s piano accompaniments. Of course, when I returned to the Czech Republic in 2012 I met the pianist Aneta Majerová in Prague, who suggested that we perform Leoš Janáček’s songs together. I was happy to dive into his work and we discovered his beautiful folk ballads and Silesian songs.
Which Janáček songs have you chosen for the programme for the festival concert and why? From the collection of Silesian Songs: Hey, what nightingale is this? From the collection of twenty-six folk ballads: I won’t die on the ground, For you, Anička, There was a forlorn widow, In the mountains, in the valleys From Moravian Folk Poetry in Song: Little red apples, Desire, The mosquitoes’ wedding, Flowers of love, The little bench On the one hand, I chose these songs because they mean a lot to me. And of course I also chose songs which suit me in terms of the range. I have quite a low voice, a contralto, so I sing an octave lower than most women, who sing in the range of mezzo-soprano or soprano. I took the liberty of transposing a couple of songs, but I’ve tried to keep the original key in which Janáček wrote the songs. With Latin American folk music, which I studied for a long time, the women often sing in the lower registers, so thanks to that I’ve developed a certain colour to my voice and singing. But I think that the weight and mystique of Janáček’s compositions combine in an interesting way with this depth to the voice. What will they be like in your interpretation? Because my whole life I’ve taken inspiration from folk music I tend to sing Janáček’s songs more in a folk spirit than in a classical or operatic
34–35
Patricie Částková
style. At the same time I’ve also arrived at my own style of singing, so in these songs there will undoubtedly be my own experiences from life, the years spent across the ocean in New York, where there is so much to draw from, but at the same time dreaming and longing to be back in my native Moravia. I approach Janáček’s songs with humility because even though the majority of them are on one page, they have within them enormous poetic power and the weight of human stories, combined with wonderful melodies and very unique accompaniments which Janáček worked on and created. What else can your concert-goers look forward to? Apart from the Janáček songs with the piano accompaniments, we are also working on several new arrangements for the Milokraj ensemble, which is made up of the violinist Stanislav Palúch, the cimbalom player Marcel Comendant, the guitarist David Dorůžka and the double-bass player Robert Ragan. These arrangements will be heard first in Brno on 16 October 2016. We’ll then be playing a selection of my own songs. For example, I’ve set to music poems by Jan Zahradníček, Věra Provazníková and others. I’d also like to point out a change to the line-up – on piano, instead of Aneta Majerová there will be the excellent pianist Jan Bartoš. Ivan Moravec said of Jan Bartoš: “Jan Bartoš is an unusual type of musician, a real personality”.
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Janáček Although Leoš Janáček and Béla Bartók were divided by a generation and a half, they had many things in common. As composers and theoreticians they were both interested in folk culture, even though Bartók’s geographical reach was much rther – from his native Hungary all the way to Romania and to North Africa. Both of them also shared the belief that music should grow from the cultural roots of their native country. Patricie Částková
photo: Archive PKF
text:
This year’s festival will include one large-scale orchestral concert featuring the music of Janáček and Bartók played by one of the Czech Republic’s leading philharmonic ensembles, the PKF – Prague Philharmonia. They will perform Janáček’s symphonic ballad The Fiddler’s Child, inspired by Svatopluk Čech’s poem, along with two of Béla Bartók’s opuses. The first is the Piano Concerto no. 2, which is a fine representation of the folk inspiration in Bartók’s work. At the piano will be one of the leading Czech virtuosos, Ivo Kahánek. The second composition is Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, inspired by Bartók’s great role model Claude Debussy. On this occasion the PKF will be led by another young Czech conductor, Tomáš Brauner, who has been dominating international podiums in recent decades
Tomáš Brauner
PKF – Prague Philharmonia
For this concert with the PKF you are performing works by Leoš Janáček and Béla Bartók side by side – what comes to mind when you hear these two names together? I think of two great composers of 20th-century classical music who have distinctively influenced the musical world through the originality of their music and who celebrated their own countries to a significant degree. They are two important individuals who have a lot in common. Both composers were constructivist in style. Both were part of the expressionist and neo-folk trends and were passionate collectors of folk songs and admirers of folk culture. The originality of Janáček and Bartók’s compositions comes from their particular focus on folk music with influences from expressionism and impressionism. Janáček’s operas receive the most attention, and you yourself have performed Káťa Kabanová and Jenůfa. For you, is there a difference between Janáček’s instrumental and operatic work? I think that the beginning of the 20th century was an important period for Janáček as an
9 Oct 2016, Beseda House
5 th International Theatre and Music Festival
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
versus
Bartók
original and from today’s perspective quite exceptional composer. Janáček’s compositional techniques speak to us very clearly. For me, these very distinctive and original works, with their originality, pure instrumentation, clear and at times almost painful expression of the various levels of sadness, joy, love, jealousy, death and happiness, are so unique that I personally don’t see a difference between them. You work with Czech and foreign orchestras. How often do you come across Janáček’s instrumental work in their programmes? I’m happy to say that Janáček is performed abroad, and relatively frequently. Naturally, we see some of the same compositions much more often both at home and with foreign orchestras, such as Taras Bulba, Sinfonietta, Lachian Dances – the more popular pieces. If a Janáček opera is performed abroad, it is always a great cultural event for every opera house, and large audiences are guaranteed.
Tomáš Brauner is one of the most soughtafter conductors of his generation. He has been the chief conductor of the Pilsen Philharmonic since 2013 and the principal guest conductor of the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra in Prague since 2014. In addition, he regularly works with leading symphony orchestras and opera houses (e.g. FOK Prague Symphony Orchestra, PKFPrague Philharmonic, Munchner Symphoniker, the Slovak Philharmonic, Philharmonie Südwestfalen, the Moscow State Radio Orchestra, Orchestra of Colours Athens, Ostrava Janáček Philharmonic, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic, Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic) and is a guest artist at prominent international festivals (Bad Kissingen, the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch, Prague Spring, Smetana’s Litomyšl, the Český Krumlov International Music Festival, etc.). In addition to symphonic music he also conducts operas, and he made his opera conducting debut at the J. K. Tyl Theatre in Plzeň. He also conducts at the National Theatre in Prague and the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava.
The PKF – Prague Philharmonia, founded in 1994, was the brainchild of the world-famous conductor Jiří Bělohlávek and was originally known as the Prague Chamber Philharmonia. Its goal was to bring to the Czech Republic and then to the rest of the world a fresh, infectious enthusiasm for music and a desire for excellence in the smallest details of the musical performance. It quickly became one of the most respected orchestras in the Czech Republic and began to build up an excellent reputation in Europe and the rest of the world. Until 2005 it was led by one of the world’s most highly respected Czech conductors, Jiří Bělohlávek, who went on to become its honorary artistic director. Other chief conductors have been the Swiss conductor Kaspar Zehnder and Jakub Hrůša, who at a young age already enjoys an excellent international reputation. Since the start of the 2015–16 season, the post of music director and chief conductor has been occupied by the prominent French conductor Emmanuel Villaume. The orchestra is regularly invited to international music festivals, performs on the world’s leading stages and is a partner of worldfamous conductors and leading musicians such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Milan Turković, Jefim Bronfman, András Schiff, Shlomo Mintz, Sarah Chang, Isabelle Faust, Mischa Maisky, Magdalena Kožená, Anna Netrebko, Natalie Dessay, Rolando Villazón, Plácido Domingo, Elina Garanča, Juan Diego Flórez, Radek Baborák, Thomas Hampson and many others.
Why should festival audiences come to this concert in particular? To hear beautiful, distinctive and unique music. We will hear two musical figures who were very similar to each other despite living so far apart. I’m extremely glad that I will be able to perform Bartók’s composition Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste. It is an important, difficult but completely original composition which you rarely hear in this country.
photo: Archive Tomáš Brauner
You are performing this demanding programme in a festival concert with the PKF – Prague Philharmonia. Is this your first time working with the orchestra? I’ve been working with the PKF – Prague Philharmonia for several years now. Working with this orchestra always fills me with great happiness and inspiration.
Tomáš Brauner
36–37
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foto: Archive Miloslav Ištvan Quartett
17 Oct 2016, Museum of Applied Arts
A Glorious 100 Years
text:
Štěpán Filípek
“A Glorious 100 Years” …is it a concert or more of a documentary? e ambitious task that the Miloslav Ištvan Quartett has set itself is to present audiences at the Janáček Brno 2016 international festival with a brief outline of the best string quartets to emerge from Brno over the past century…
5 th International Theatre and Music Festival
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016
The associations which the members of the quartet have towards the Kreutzer Sonata
Alexej Aslamas:
“Jealousy / Murder” Jan Bělohlávek: “Passion / Longing” Stanislav Vacek: “Sex / Infideli ” Štěpán Filípek:
“Stop sentiment!” The concert is dedicated to the works of composers who are inextricably linked with Brno and the region of South Moravia. The first of these is Leoš Janáček (1854–1928), the founder of the Brno school of composition. Today his music is a globally recognized phenomenon, and in addition to his work as a composer he was also a teacher who trained a whole generation of very talented composers. One of Janáček’s most gifted pupils was without a doubt Jaroslav Kvapil (1892–1958), who was a key figure in Brno’s cultural scene, particularly in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when he founded the department of composition at the newly established Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts. Following in Kvapil’s footsteps was Miloslav Ištvan (1928–1990), a leading figure from the second Brno avantgarde. In his work, as a reaction against the demands of socialist realism, he attempted to link the influences of the Moravian musical tradition with European “New Music”, African rhythms and rock‘n‘roll. The late František Emmert (1940–2015) was a distinctive composer from the turn of the millennium. He followed on from Ištvan’s work primarily in terms of his compositional thinking, where he was one of the few to properly absorb and build on the ideas of his predecessors. However, he combined them with his own very distinctive musicality and obscure mysticism. In the period following the First World War, Leoš Janáček was already a renowned composer, as his opera works in particular began to be staged across Europe and even further afield. In addition to his extensive theatrical and symphonic work, he also wrote chamber music, and when he was approached by the Czech Quartet in 1923 about writing a prestigious composition for them, he got down to work. Janáček based his quartet on the impression that he had been left with after reading Lev Nikolai Tolstoy’s Kreutzer Sonata. However, the composition is not programmatic, rather the opposite – String Quartet no. 1 is a critique of romantic clichés, and it attempts to document eternally recurring human emotions in their beautiful as well as nightmarish forms. In 1949 Jaroslav Kvapil responded to a competition announced by the Hába Quartet by composing his String Quartet no. 5. For this composition he primarily made use of techniques based on the form of rondos and variations combined with folk music, particularly songs from the Slovácko region. In certain parts of the work he also cleverly quotes and comments on the development of European music, from Celtic music through classical choral music to the works of high Romanticism. Thanks to its indisputable quality, the composition won first prize in the aforementioned competition.
In the early 1970s, Czech society fell into a general depression as a result of the Russian occupation and the process of Normalization. Following a large wave of emigration, the communist regime needed to keep at least part of the intellectual elite in Czechoslovakia, and this concerned composers of music as well. Miloslav Ištvan was one of those who remained. Although he was allowed to continue to teach at JAMU, the performance of his work was neither welcomed nor supported by the regime. And so he became part of a “grey area” which was quietly tolerated by the authorities. Nevertheless, for the composer and for Moravian culture this proved to be a “gift from the gods” as the composer’s social isolation and his focus on his own work over the twenty or so years of Normalization led to the creation of many outstanding compositions. In 1986, at a time when Miloslav Ištvan had moved away from “New Music” towards a more universal form of musical thinking, he composed his String Quartet no. 2. He himself commented that “It can be compared to a rotating object. It’s always the same, but it continually reveals itself from a different angle.” František Emmert was from North Bohemia, and his journey to the South Moravian capital, which he later made his home, first led through Prague. In the mid-1950s he went to study music at the Prague Conservatory, where he studied piano under Lev Esch and composition under Jan Bartoš. His university studies in composition brought him to Brno, where Jan Kapr and Miloslav Ištvan had a formative influence on him at JAMU. After experimenting with the “New Music” in the 1970s, he developed his own unique style, in which he attempted to create a spiritual music mainly influenced by Catholicism. However, his String Quartet no. 5 from 1978 stands out from Emmert’s religious–mystical themes. It primarily concerns one person’s confession…the intimate confession of František the man, who dedicated this composition to the memory of his mother. Although the Miloslav Ištvan Quartett is principally an ensemble which performs contemporary southern Moravian music, with this interpretation it is reaching far back into history. Should we only live in the present and not look around us, or is our own identity, the awareness of where we come from, also important to us? Perhaps this concert will provide an answer…
38–39
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15 and 16 Oct 2016, Janáček Theatre
Bluebeard’s Castle Béla Bartók Bluebeard: Anders Lorentzson Judith: Katarina Giotas
Expectation Arnold Schönberg Woman: Katarina Karnéus Man: Anders Lorentzson
Director: David Radok Conductor: Marko Ivanović Janáček Opera NTB in collaboration with Opera Göteborg
photo: Mats Bäcker Expectation – Katarina Karnéus
40–41
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Theatre World Brno 2016 We would like to thank audiences for attending the 7th year of the Theatre World Brno festival in such large numbers, and we look forward to seeing you in May - 2017!
A festival of progressive theatre 5 th International Theatre and Music Festival
JANÁČEK BRNO 2016 Financial support:
General partner:
Partners:
Media Partners:
Main Media Partner:
18 Oct 2016, Janáček Theatre
Jenůfa Leoš Janáček Director: Martin Glaser Conductor: Marko Ivanović Main cast: Jenůfa: Pavla Vykopalová Kostelnička: Szilvia Rálik Laca: Jaroslav Březina Janáček Opera NTB Festival Closing Concert
photo:
Patrik Borecký